Hi, This is for teaching purposes so that students can "walk" though 3D structures. Would it be possible to use Chimera via a 3D stereo beamer to project display on a very large screen and watch the selected structure in 3D by means of shutter glasses? If this is so, what kind of equipment would you recommend? Many thanks, Nadir -- Pr. Nadir T. Mrabet Structural& Molecular Biochemistry Nutrigenex - INSERM U-954 Nancy University, School of Medicine 9, Avenue de la Foret de Haye, BP 184 54505 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex France Phone: +33 (0)3.83.68.32.73 Fax: +33 (0)3.83.68.32.79 E-mail: Nadir.Mrabet<at> medecine.uhp-nancy.fr Cell.: +33 (0)6.11.35.69.09 LEGAL NOTICE Unless expressly stated otherwise, this message is confidential and may be privileged. It is intended for the addressee(s) only. Access to this E-mail by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not an addressee, any disclosure or copying of the contents of this E-mail, or any action taken (or not taken) in reliance on it, is unauthorized and may be unlawful. If you are not an addressee, please inform the sender immediately.
On 07/21/2010 07:24 AM, Nadir T. Mrabet wrote:
Hi,
This is for teaching purposes so that students can "walk" though 3D structures. Would it be possible to use Chimera via a 3D stereo beamer to project display on a very large screen and watch the selected structure in 3D by means of shutter glasses? If this is so, what kind of equipment would you recommend?
Many thanks,
Nadir
The short answer is yes, it is possible. For longer answers see recent postings on the chimera users list: <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2010-May/005145.html>, and <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2010-June/005297.html>. There will probably be some announcements of new stereo hardware at the SIGGRAPH conference next week, so the choices may change soon. And here's some generic advice about choosing a graphics card: The answer to your questions depends on what kind and what amount of data you're planning to view with chimera. For instance, if you're looking at volume data, large molecules, or trajectories, a graphics card with more memory would be important. And if you're looking at large molecules in ball and stick mode, doing volume calculations, or making movies, you'll want a fast CPU as well. And if you want the best 3D graphics in stereo, you'll need to get a workstation graphics card with a stereo DIN connector. So take a look at the chimera benchmarks page, http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/trac/chimera/wiki/benchmarks, to get an idea of the relative performance of graphics cards with chimera. You will see that we need more benchmarks from recent graphics cards (so whatever you get, please submit the chimera benchmarks for it). You will also see that the consumer graphics cards do very well with the Volume depictions. And that the workstations graphics cards generally do better with the Molecule scores, and that the Molecule scores are more dependent on the CPU speed than the Volume scores. You will also see that Linux systems tend to benchmark higher than Windows systems with the same hardware. Good luck, Greg
On 07/21/2010 07:24 AM, Nadir T. Mrabet wrote:
Hi,
This is for teaching purposes so that students can "walk" though 3D structures. Would it be possible to use Chimera via a 3D stereo beamer to project display on a very large screen and watch the selected structure in 3D by means of shutter glasses? If this is so, what kind of equipment would you recommend?
Many thanks,
Nadir
So there were some developments at SIGGRAPH, but nothing that would change the previous recommendations made in the chimera-users mailing list. To summarize, for a large group of people, you want a setup similar to what is done for 3D movies in a movie theater, which is to use left-hand and right-hand circularly polarized light for the left-eye and right-eye images. There are three parts to the setup: (1) projecting the stereo images, (2) reflecting the images, (3) receiving the images at the eyes. 1. For projecting the stereo images with chimera, you need a workstation-class graphics card, either an AMD FirePro (or ATI FireGL) or a NVIDIA Quadro (or Quadro FX, not Quadro NVS), and either (a) two projectors with passive polarizers, or (b) a single projector with an active polarizers. The single projector method is much simpler to maintain because you don't have to keep aligning the two projectors, but may cost more because the projector has to be able to display at 120Hz (and there's the cost of the active polarizer). The relative costs of the two options vary. Active polarizers are available from DepthQ, http://www.depthq.com/, and RealD, http://www.reald.com/Content/professional.aspx. DepthQ also sells a 3D projector that can display 3 meter wide images, and has European distributers, so that might be the best choice. If you want a larger image, you'll need a Christie Mirage or a Barco projector. 2. To reflect the stereo images, you need a screen that doesn't change the polarization of the light. There are lots of choices. Google for "3D projection screen" to see what's available. What screen you want depends on the layout of the room that the stereo projection will be in. Narrow rooms can use screens with a smaller viewing cone and higher gain. I've heard good things about Stewart Filmscreen, but get recommendations from whoever you buy your projector too. 3. Last part of making sure each eye only receives the image it is supposed to is for the person to wear circularly polarized glasses. Google for "polarized 3d glasses" to see what's available. I'd avoid the disposable paper ones. I like the RealD glasses that the movie theaters use. Perhaps a theater would sell some to you. The glasses from Zalman displays work too. Bon chance, Greg
participants (2)
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Greg Couch -
Nadir T. Mrabet